Wednesday, September 23, 2015

It’s #BiWeek and today, September 23rd, is
Celebrate Bisexuality Day. As a newly married person, I’ve never been more
proud to proclaim my bisexuality as I am today – and part of that reason is
because regardless of my past and present advocacy, it is all too easy to fall
back into the invisibility of my closeted days.

Well-known to bisexuals, allies and LGBTQ+ community
members, that damn closet is ever-present, sometimes most so for bisexuals who
are in otherwise-seeming relationships, not to mention marriages. Once the ring
is on the finger and the legal documents are signed, for a monogamous bisexual
like me, if I am not loud and proud in my bisexuality, I will be seen as
straight – I will be seen as someone I am not and never have been.

Making the decision to marry my partner last November was
not difficult – they are the person who is always there for me, come hell or high
water; the person who loves me unconditionally; the person who knows how to
calm me down from a panic attack or lift me up from a wave of depression; the
person who can make me laugh harder than just about anyone else. No, saying yes
to their proposal was not difficult; the difficult part is the enduring need to
come out on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day, to those who don’t
know yet.

No matter if I’m draped in the bisexual pride flag (most
people outside of the community wouldn’t recognize it anyway), unless I’m
shaking your hand when we meet and identify as bisexual (which can be awkward),
or I come out by describing my activism (which rarely comes up in conversation
fluidly), or tell you what my book Queer
Greer is about, you will assume I’m heterosexual.

There are some family members of mine who assumed that,
since I am a married woman, my activism days were over – they truly didn’t
understand why I needed to be vocal about being bisexual. “It’s not about me,” I have tried to explain, multiple
times. “It’s about the kid I used to be and the kids out there now who don’t
know who they are. The kids who are still being told they’re wrong, that
there’s something wrong with them.
It’s about them.”

It’s about all of the policies that need to reflect bisexuals; it’s about the
staggering statistics of domestic violence and sexual assault against
bisexuals; it’s about the poor health outcomes bisexuals experience; it’s about
the harassment bisexuals receive in school and the workplace; it’s about the
income inequality bisexuals face. There are so many reasons to advocate for my
bisexual peers, I will cry bisexuality and the naturalness, the beauty of it,
until I’m blue in the face and cold in the ground – for them and, truthfully,
for myself, too. Because I am one of them, living in a society and a world that
still discriminates, that continues to condemn.

And as my partner and I think about having children, they
will be born into that society and world as well. I have the responsibility to
teach them who I am, what the bisexual community means, what being LGBTQ+ is; I
have the perspective to give them perspective and, hopefully, shape them into
more empathetic, loving people as a result.

I believe that the haters hate what they don’t understand or
what they see in themselves and cannot fathom. The more the activist community
educates, the more people we can reach who see themselves in us, as well as
those who have simply not had the chance to learn what being bisexual means –
and what it doesn’t mean (let’s get past those negative stereotypes already,
okay?). The wider the vast spectrum of bisexuality and all it entails is
portrayed and advocated for (single bisexuals, polyamorous bisexuals,
monogamous bisexuals, bisexuals of color, trans+ and genderqueer bisexuals…),
the more acceptance can be had.

Sunday,
September 20th, Portland, OR: Join the Portland Bisexual+ Community
for Sunday Coffee @ the newly reopened LGBT cafe Triumph Café from 1-4pm with
The Bi Brigade. For more information, visit facebook.com/bibrigade.

Tuesday, September 22nd, Washington,
D.C.:Bi+ Community Health and Wellness Festival for #BiWeek
2015, with a reception and free HIV testing starting at 6:30pm;
program begins at 7:15pm at the Equality Forum atHRC.The event will begin with a reception and an official proclamation
of Bisexual Awareness Week from the DC Mayor’s office. The program will feature
advocates, and health and wellness experts facilitating an interactive
discussion on how Bi+ people can advocate for themselves in healthcare settings,
and take charge of self-care and general wellness. Free on-site HIV testing
will also be available during the reception from Whitman Walker Health. For
more information join the Facebook event:https://www.facebook.com/events/1615499252035129/

Wednesday, September 23rd, San
Francisco, CA:The San Francisco bi community
will celebrate Bisexual Visibility with an evening variety show from 6-pm on El
Rio’s back patio on Mission Street, featuring live music from Nina Jo Smith and
Some of The Buds; moves by Three Sisters Bellydance; burlesque by Isis Starr;
poetry by Jan Steckel, Carole Queen and Lani Ka’ahumanu; comedy by Ginorma
Desmond; and food from the Voodoo Van. For more information, visit the
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/551664211640377/

Thursday, September 24th, San
Francisco, CA: San Francisco, CA-based
non-profit the National Center for Lesbian Rights will launch a Twitterstorm to
celebrate Bisexual Awareness Week and #biweek.

Friday,
September 25th, Boston, MA:Celebrate
Bisexuality Day with the Bisexual Resource Center and the Boston bi community
at Club Café Boston at 7:00pm. They’ll be handing out their annual Unsung Hero
and Bi Ally Awards, coupled with a dance party to celebrate 30 years of
bi-tastic community building by the BRC. For more information, visit the
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/393160230883372/

Wednesday, September 30th, Minneapolis,
MN:Bisexual Organizing Project is sponsoring a
community social event with presentation of Community Recognition Awards from
6:30-9:30pm at Sidhe Brewing. For more information, visit: http://bisexualorganizingproject.org/

There are plenty more being added continuously. Be sure to
check out the #biweek hashtag on Twitter to find them all!

And it's so great that there were lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender winners this year!

"I’m honored to be a part of the Advocate
team recognized by the NLGJA this year, especially for projects that
were so collaborative in nature. Although she’s since moved on to
Mic.com, I loved conspiring with Michelle Garcia to find new, innovative
ways to rejuvenate our annual 40 Under 40 feature, with an intentional
focus on intersectional issues and the emerging voices fighting for
change. The Day in LGBT America series represents the beautiful
diversity of our community as we go about our everyday
lives, and the recognition our team earned this year proves what good
can happen when two radical queer ladies get the reins of a publication.
With that being said, I also have to express my gratitude to our
fearless leader, editorial director Lucas Grindley,
who won second place in the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award. His confidence
in our team — including naming Michelle, and subsequently myself,
managing editor — helps empower us to dig for the important stories that
aren’t being told. I’m thrilled to admit that
we’ve only just begun." Sunnivie Brydum (Sunnivie self-identifies as a queer cis woman, though she takes no umbrage at being included in the “bi+” umbrella.)

Excellence in Online
Journalism Award third place

“40 Under 40: Emerging Voices”

The
Advocate

Diane
Anderson-Minshall

American
journalist and author best known for writing about lesbian, gay bisexual and
transgender subjects. She is editor-at-large of The Advocate and editor-in-chief of HIV Plus Magazine

"I’ve
won a number of NLGJA awards for my work and it’s a thrill each
time. This is has been a great year for
me (my memoir just garnered me my first literary award too at the
Golden Crown Lit Conference) and the two magazines where I serve as an
editor (The Advocate and Plus) have just been similarly blessed with
honors in 2015. But I have to give all the props this
time to our current managing editor Sunnivie Brydum and our former
managing editor Michelle Garcia who both really spearheaded this giant
40 Under 40 feature. Corralling contributions from 11 people, staff and
freelancers, is like juggling drunk toddlers so
it's really testament to their skills and our bitchin’ team that this
series resonated with readers and the NLGJA judges." Diane Anderson-Minshall

"This award, and the amount of teamwork that went into writing, editing
and producing The Day in LGBT and the 40 Under 40 just goes to show how
much the Advocate team trusts each other to work well and produce
something that attempts to reflect LGBTQ Americans and the people who
keep our community moving forward. My colleagues, who I consider to be
(my weird, dysfunctional, shade-throwing, but immensely close and
loving) family, are some of the best people in our business, and I would
not be where I'm at today without them." Michelle Garcia

“40 Under
40: Emerging Voices”

The
Advocate

Faith Cheltenham

As
president of BiNet USA -- the national non-profit advocacy
organization for bisexual people -- guest blogger Faith Cheltenham co-organized
the 2013 Bisexual Community Issues Roundtable at the White House.

Community Definition of Bisexuality

“Bisexual - A person whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction is to other people of various sexes and/or gender identities. Individuals may experience this attraction in differing ways and degrees over their lifetime.”

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